Legal Question in Family Law in Texas

Often in these cases the court will order no child support until after the father is out of high school. There isn't really a guideline for this situation, except to the extent that the Family Code says that where it's difficult to determine Dad's income (the Judges tend to apply this provision where Dad has NO income), it's based on minimum wage.

The best place to see an ordinary child support/visitation order is at the courthouse. Go down and be friendly with the District Clerk; tell her what you want, and she can probably help you.

Actually, since the pleadings and orders on file at the courthouse will pertain to specific cases, and may be subject to circumstances that wouldn't apply to this case, I'd suggest you look instead at the information in this link:

http://www.texaslawhelp.org/documents/clusters/TX/217/English/agreed.shtml

It's provided by an organization that I believe is at least affiliated with the State bar, and while the information and forms provided aren't (and don't claim to be) comparable to having an attorney advising you, they do give a fairly good explanation of how things work (I haven't looked at their SAPCR forms, but I've reviewed another form they provide, and that one seemed accurate to me, at least at a glance).

The real potential problem with using this or any other form is that there are all kinds of situations that just aren't covered by the form, or that are phrased such that you can't figure out what they mean, so you end up guessing which provision to use. And things that may not seem like a big deal now, and that are not always put into SAPCR orders can sometimes turn out to be a VERY big deal a few years down the road. For example, some orders have geographic restrictions on where the child may live, and consent of the other parent or a court order can be required to override that restriction, and other orders are written so as not to have any restrictions in place. With minor parents who can't legally control where they themselves live, who cares? Is it really worth making a fuss over, or is it better to just check a box and be done with it? Well, it may be worth thinking about and negotiating terms for: without a restriction in place, five years from now, the now-adult parent may suddenly decide to move halfway across the country for whatever reason, maybe to attend college and live with sweet old Aunt Rose, or maybe to move in with some loser they met last week online, taking the child with them, and leaving the other parent in a position where they have no choice about the move, potentially MAJOR concerns about the child's welfare with little way to monitor the situation, and effectively ending up getting to see their child maybe twice a year. Any good family attorney would discuss this topic in depth with a client and give advice on what might work for both parties in that specific case (there are options such as restricting moves to within the state, within a county, within the current county and surrounding counties, within a certain radius of the other parent's residence or the current county, etc., etc.). Most things like that should be be able to be worked out so both sides can live with the results, but that's only true if you know what the options are that you have to choose from, what the advantages and disadvantages are of each, and what can realistically happen if certain choices are made. Because of this kind of thing, if you do use form documents, I'd strongly encourage you to at least engage an attorney to talk with you about the issues and look over your proposed order before anyone actually signs off on it. Good luck.